Federal government says it has commenced the distribution of a new innovative HIV test kits for testing of pregnant women in the country.
Deputy Director in the Federal Ministry of Health and a focal person at the National AIDS and STIs Control Program’me (NASCP), Dr. Gbenga Ijaodola, disclosed this at a media workshop on the Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV organised by Federal Information and Culture and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Calabar, Cross River state, on Tuesday.
He said the distribution of the kits was part of the to achieve extensive coverage of HIV testing for pregnant women.
Ijaodola said the kits is capable of testing both HIV and Syphilis in pregnant women.
He said the gateway to preventing Mother to Child Transmission of HIV (PMTCT) was to ensure that pregnant women are tested with the right test kits.
” One thing that is very unique about this new test kits is that it can diagnose two diseases- HIV and Syphilis using one single drop of blood,” he said.
“We think that this will improve our HIV testing coverage in the country.”
Ijaodola said with the concerted efforts among the stakeholders, the country will be able to make far-reaching progress in coverage of PMTCT and eventually eliminate the HIV scourge.
A Senior consultant at the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital, Dr. Atana Ewa said World Health Organization (WHO) report shows that 1.8 million children from the sub Saharan Africa are living with HIV.
She also said more than 90 percent of these children get infected with HIV from their mother during birth.
She, therefore, urged pregnant women to always attend antenatal clinics and to ensure that they subject themselves to HIV test in order to protect lives of their babies.
